I hopped into my car and drove up to my parents’ place after work. We’re still on daylight saving time here so it wasn’t dark when I hit the freeway. I haven’t been up this way for awhile and it was shocking to see the destruction caused by the fires from a few weeks ago.

Trees that have been green for my whole life are now black sticks. A pine plantation had been decimated. The trees were still standing and they had foliage on them but it was burnt to a crisp. The leaves looked like they had been petrified by the heat from flames that moved through so quickly it didn’t burn them away.

Normally when we have fires here, the bush comes back to life quickly. But this time there hasn’t been enough rain so everything is still charcoal and black.

The other shocking thing is how abruptly the landscape changes from burnt to green. I drove under an overpass and the landscape was suddenly its familiar green again. There were houses with scorch marks right up to their doors but the houses themselves were untouched. I knew the fires had torn through that area but I didn’t think it’d be so close to the freeway. There were so many places where the fire had actually jumped the freeway and raced across paddocks and up hills. It must have been so frightening to be there on the day the fire swept through.

However, there was one small thing. There’s a small cluster of gum trees that looks like a chicken from a distance. I always look for it when I get around a particular bend. I was happy to see it was still there and hadn’t be razed by the fires.